So long, 2017. Don’t let the door hit you. It was a good year for movies and not much else. Movies weren’t an escape; they were a mass exodus from terrible news, lately about Hollywood itself. Yet many of the best movies showed what we were dodging, entertaining parables of oppression and misfortune. Or else they demonstrated the resiliency pulling us through tough times. At least that’s my thinking about 2017’s finest films. Yours is just as valid. After such a contentious year, I don’t want to argue about it. Happier 2018.

The Shape of Water

An erotic fairy tale with horror the Grimms never dreamed of. Guillermo del Toro’s Cold War fantasy is an emotional and technical marvel, from Sally Hawkins’ nearly wordless performance to the best monster suit ever. Michael Shannon’s sadist is the year’s top villain, a "man of the future" and the future is now.

The Florida Project

The simplest production on this list, held closest to my heart. Sean Baker’s peek at poverty through the eyes of children living in discount hotels near Disney World is a very funny, incredibly warm tale of what amounts to child endangerment. The ending gets me every time.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

A pungently overwritten revenge saga featuring three of the year’s top performances: Frances McDormand as a mother wanting answers, Woody Harrelson as a police chief not providing them and Sam Rockwell as a dim, dangerous deputy standing his ground.

Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan’s clockwork retelling of a crucial World War II evacuation told from land, sea and air in three separate time frames. Hans Zimmer’s tick-tick-tick musical score adds to tension Nolan has already secured. The most technically proficient movie of the year.

Call Me By Your Name

Remember this name: Timothée Chalamet. His portrayal of a teenager attracted to an older man (Armie Hammer) in sun-dappled Italy may win an Oscar. Luca Guadagnino’s elegant direction of James Ivory’s screenplay results in the year’s swooniest romance. Opens locally Jan. 19.

Get Out

I’ll confess to initially underestimating Jordan Peele’s subtly savage satire of racial appropriation. Probably because I’m white, which is clearly Peele’s point. Get Out is an eye-opener equaling Do the Right Thing in expressing a contemporary black experience amid white privilege. Plus it’s funnier.

Baby Driver

Style is the substance of Edgar Wright’s heist flick, synching music with getaway mayhem to literally turn the genre on its ear. "… a movie so full-throttle cool that you want to fist bump the screen," my review declared, along with the promise of a slot here. Boom.

War for the Planet of the Apes

When practically each weekend brings a new blockbuster, cherish those with intelligence matching the special effects. Matt Reeves wraps up the finest trilogy in years with Shakespearean drama, poetic justice and Andy Serkis’ astonishing motion capture performance as apes savior Caesar.

The Greatest Showman/Logan

Okay, I’m cheating but two Hugh Jackmans are too much to resist. He’s a singing, dancing dynamo as P.T. Barnum and a brooding kettle of violent regret as Wolverine. Both movies are sterling examples of their genre, each performance thrilling in wildly different ways.

Tampa Bay’s film festival season is now a double feature with two long-running events splicing their audiences together.
For its 12th edition, the Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival is combining forces with the Tampa ...

Tell people there's a new movie starring The Room's Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero. Assuming they're fans of "the greatest bad movie ever made," or at least familiar with The Disaster Artist, you'll have their full attention. Then comes the inevitable question: "But, wait, are they, like, serious?"

Before we never hear from him again, and almost certainly we won’t after Tomb Raider, let’s hail the name Roar Uthaug.Just the name. Not his movie.Has there ever been a more perfect name for an action movie director than Roar? It’s like a ’80s rock s...

Two staples of Tampa Bay’s cinema scene are joining forces with a combined 34 years of audience participation.The 12th annual Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival is now featuring the 22nd annual Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival...

Two of Tampa Bay’s longest running cinema showcases are teaming up, celebrities are showing up and the movie slate is looking up.Those are takeaways from Thursday’s lineup release by the 12th annual Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film...

A Wrinkle in Time arrives on gossamer wings with cult of Oprah uplift, far less magical than believing itself to be.The rabbit was pulled early from Disney’s hat when Ava DuVernay was hired to direct, the first African-American woman given a $100-plu...